Database Users

My available/used storage space does not add up

Take a look at my screenshot, if you add up all my usage + free space, it comes out to about 11.42GB. Subtract that from Total space of 12.92GB and you have about 1.5GB of space that's not being reported.
Now what made me notice this was, the other day I made a backup in TWRP, which according to TWRP, will use 1.4+GB of storage. Today I wanted to restore this backup, but TWRP shows that I don't have any backups. I booted back into Android and used file explorer to browse the TWRP folder, and it was empty. I made another backup in TWRP just now to make sure it was backing up properly, and everything seems fine.
Does this look normal? How much unreported spaced is being used on your device?
Edit: So it turns out to be an issue with TWRP. For some reason, the first backup ends up in /data/media/TWRP.

You should try a free app in the app store called storage analyser. It gives you a clear picture of where all you data is being stored. I found a few gb of data that where being used up by things I had installed previously and then left data behind when un installed.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

nelomen said:
You should try a free app in the app store called storage analyser. It gives you a clear picture of where all you data is being stored. I found a few gb of data that where being used up by things I had installed previously and then left data behind when un installed.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. Storage Analyzer is reporting 7.97GB of free space, while Android is reporting 5.33GB.

shilent said:
Interesting. Storage Analyzer is reporting 7.97GB of free space, while Android is reporting 5.33GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP save backups to the wrong location occasionally.
Using a root explorer. check your mnt/shell/emulated folder. you should find a TWRP folder either in shell or in emulated.
Move it to mnt/shell/emulated/0, or delete it if you need to.
Edit: when the backup folder not in these folder, android system will think it to be "system data"
/sdcard
/data/media/0
mnt/shell/emulated/0
/storage/emulated/0

KyraOfFire said:
TWRP save backups to the wrong location occasionally.
Using a root explorer. check your mnt/shell/emulated folder. you should find a TWRP folder either in shell or in emulated.
Move it to mnt/shell/emulated/0, or delete it if you need to.
Edit: when the backup folder not in these folder, android system will think it to be "system data"
/sdcard
/data/media/0
mnt/shell/emulated/0
/storage/emulated/0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see a TWRP folder in /mnt/shell, and /mnt/shell/emulated does not exist. Anywhere else I should be looking?

shilent said:
Interesting. Storage Analyzer is reporting 7.97GB of free space, while Android is reporting 5.33GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Difference in mine also
Using Tapatalk 2

It never showed correct for me, especially cuz it wouldnt read a lot of files that i just dragged into my phone like a usb storage...
You would think the android team would get these kind of small things fixed...

long shot but If you use linux and delete a file, some put it into a hidden folder .Trash-1000 rather than actually deleting it.

Alright, the same exact thing just happened on my girlfriends phone. She saw my phone and liked how my colors looked, so I flash Franco's kernel onto hers. Before I flashed, I created a back up in TWRP. Again, this backup is no where to be found, and her phone just lost 1.6GB of free space.
Maybe I'll post in the TWRP thread.

So it turns out to be an issue with TWRP. For some reason, the first backup ends up in /data/media/TWRP.

shilent said:
So it turns out to be an issue with TWRP. For some reason, the first backup ends up in /data/media/TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Omg thank u so so much I just got back almost 1gb of storage back. You are da man seriously.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Where should we move the backups to? I'm afraid if I move them, they won't show up in recovery.
I'm using CWM and it looks like backups are saved in /mnt/shell/emulated/clockworkmod/backup

Storage

Using SD maid if found where the heck all my storage was going. Under /storage/emulated the folders /legacy and /0 are exactly the same with all the same stuff in it. Is there 2 of everything in my internal SD? Can I delete one of these folders? I attached a screenshot
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

For giggles I deleted one. The folder was still there but empty and the other folder is also empty. I'm thinking they are the same just shown twice with different names. Not actually duplicate.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Hmm okay damn. Trying to figure out where this space is going because all I really have is a couple things in the downloads folder and thats it. Another screenshot of my storage in settings kinda further backs my idea
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Have you done any nandroid backups?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

jpeterson066 said:
Using SD maid if found where the heck all my storage was going. Under /storage/emulated the folders /legacy and /0 are exactly the same with all the same stuff in it. Is there 2 of everything in my internal SD? Can I delete one of these folders? I attached a screenshot
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are not duplicate files... The files are only stored in one location, but each folder has a "link" to them...
Sorta like your computer and creating "shortcuts"

That's all well and good, but...
UberSlackr said:
They are not duplicate files... The files are only stored in one location, but each folder has a "link" to them...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...even Android's storage manager can't get it right:
Phone:
mako 16GB
rev_11
MAKOZ10o
M9615A-CEFWMAZM-2.0.1700.48
Secure Boot - enabled
Lock State - unlocked
Rooted with (an otherwise) stock ROM (4.2.2 OTA) and Clockwork Mod Touch 6.0.2.3.
I have found four places seeming to be my SD storage:
/sdcard
/storage/sdcard0
/storage/emulated/0
/storage/emulated/legacy
I've attached other screenshots showing how File Expert HD and DiskView treat my storage. CWM 6.0.2.3 also "misinterprets" my storage situation so I can't make more than 2 backups, and if I have 2 then I struggle for space for downloads and apps. I really wouldn't care about this if apps understood it - it makes you wonder how it managed to get released when not only do no apps support it, but Android's own system gets confused!
I've seen posts talk about merging all SD data with /data/media/0 but on my phone (using both File Expert and the new File Expert HD) that's showing up as a file not a folder. Seriously, how do I sort this out? Which is the real folder, why are the other three there, how do I disable this silly "shortcut" thing that's destroying my phone's storage?

Did you guys make any nandroid backup on the SD cards?

andyli1985 said:
Did you guys make any nandroid backup on the SD cards?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, what originally alerted me to the space issue was when I went to make my second nandroid since installing the 4.2.2 OTA. I made one before and one after the update, then went to make a third in order to have a recent backup before trying to flash the Ubuntu Touch Dev preview but the nandroid failed due to insufficient storage space.

Ultrabenosaurus said:
Yeah, what originally alerted me to the space issue was when I went to make my second nandroid since installing the 4.2.2 OTA. I made one before and one after the update, then went to make a third in order to have a recent backup before trying to flash the Ubuntu Touch Dev preview but the nandroid failed due to insufficient storage space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This should explain the "missing" storage. Since you made two nandroid backups and you have quite a lot of apps installed (2.89GB), this will take at least 6 GB of space.
Edit: Nandroid backups don't show on the android storage view.

andyli1985 said:
This should explain the "missing" storage. Since you made two nandroid backups and you have quite a lot of apps installed (2.89GB), this will take at least 6 GB of space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At the time of taking the screenshots in my first post, I only have one nandroid in order to keep a decent amount of free space. The fact that CWM is also misinterpreting the storage makes me think it's backing up all 4 locations, which means that my nandroid is stupidly big. That coupled with all apps mistaking the 3 mirror locations as actual files results in a huge loss of potential storage space as apps think the device is full when it really isn't.
I should probably also mention that Windows reports the same free/used space numbers as File Expert HD.

All your internal data lies within /data/media/
The contents within that is usually what is visible to the user on a TW ROM. Once you switch to an AOSP ROM a second partition is created in /storage/emulated/0. This is your actual internal memory. Any previous downloads or backups made before installing an AOSP ROM will be located in /data/media/ since that was it's original directory. You can still view the "0" folder in /data/media/ but all your downloads, backups, etc, will be directed to /storage/emulated/0/ by default.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

LuigiBull23 said:
All your internal data lies within /data/media/
The contents within that is usually what is visible to the user on a TW ROM. Once you switch to an AOSP ROM a second partition is created in /storage/emulated/0. This is your actual internal memory. Any previous downloads or backups made before installing an AOSP ROM will be located in /data/media/ since that was it's original directory. You can still view the "0" folder in /data/media/ but all your downloads, backups, etc, will be directed to /storage/emulated/0/ by default.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand what you mean by a "TW ROM" but I haven't changed ROM. I unlocked the bootloader and rooted, but other than a few quick plays with Ubuntu Touch I'm still using the stock ROM (which I return to from Ubuntu via restoring a CWM nandroid). I haven't flashed any Android ROMs at all.
I didn't have the phone long before I got the 4.2.2 OTA update and I didn't check the folder structure before then, but I didn't notice any suspiciously fast drops in free space until after said update.

Ultrabenosaurus said:
At the time of taking the screenshots in my first post, I only have one nandroid in order to keep a decent amount of free space. The fact that CWM is also misinterpreting the storage makes me think it's backing up all 4 locations, which means that my nandroid is stupidly big. That coupled with all apps mistaking the 3 mirror locations as actual files results in a huge loss of potential storage space as apps think the device is full when it really isn't.
I should probably also mention that Windows reports the same free/used space numbers as File Expert HD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you use a file explorer with root access and check how big is this folder? /data/media/clockworkmod/backup

File Expert and File Expert HD both see it as a file... What app should I use?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Install ES File Explorer, then follow the instructions on this post

Going to have to count up the folder size manually, will do it later and report back because I need to get ready for work now.
Sent from my Nexus 4

you know that the "Real" folders are in "mnt/shell/emulated"?^^
There you also see the clockworkmod folder and check it's size.

Miscellaneous files takes up 29 gb of space?

I have a rooted note 3 running beans and when I was dling a few apps it then said insufficient space. I checked and it says that miscellaneous files are taking up 29 gb of space. Anyone had this happen and/or no a fix? Thanks !
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Someone thumbnails files grab too much of space. Look for that.

I use the app called DiskUsage from the Playstore to identify what is taking up space on my phones/tablets. It will read the internal drive and the external as well then lay it out in a nice table. You are then able to delete things from right within the app.

sohebq said:
Someone thumbnails files grab too much of space. Look for that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that suggestion. But how do I do that?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

CreekDirt said:
I use the app called DiskUsage from the Playstore to identify what is taking up space on my phones/tablets. It will read the internal drive and the external as well then lay it out in a nice table. You are then able to delete things from right within the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded disk usage app but what exactly am I looking for that may be causing the miscellaneous file usage? Thanks !
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So I did a clean install of beans to see if that may fix the issue but it didn't change anything at all. Any help would be appreciated !
I don't believe it's any of my backups because they are on my ext card.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

go to your internal memory then find a folder called dcim. You will find a folder called .thumbnails delete it and voila
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

lesalloum said:
go to your internal memory then find a folder called dcim. You will find a folder called .thumbnails delete it and voila
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but that didn't change anything
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

When I click on miscellaneous files it shows
System memory 29.56 gb
Then lists
Viber 16.35 mb and other items listed down in decreasing size.
Anyone know how I can increase my storage ?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Anyone have a fix?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

If you have made a backup through recovery, it takes up a lot of space. Also, Titanium Backups also takes up a huge amount of space. If your recovery is CWM, you should check a folder labeled clockworkmod. You will see how much a cwm backup takes. I believe the clockworkmod folder doesn't get deleted if you do a factory reset or if you unroot your device. Don't quote me on this. I may be wrong.

jtambis6 said:
If you have made a backup through recovery, it takes up a lot of space. Also, Titanium Backups also takes up a huge amount of space. If your recovery is CWM, you should check a folder labeled clockworkmod. You will see how much a cwm backup takes. I believe the clockworkmod folder doesn't get deleted if you do a factory reset or if you unroot your device. Don't quote me on this. I may be wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your response! I haven't made any backups with titanium as of yet. I am not sure if safestrap uses CWM or TWRP but I believe it's the latter. But all my backups were stored on my external sd card. Is it possible for it to be stored on the internal along with the external even if I pointed it to the external ?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Titanium Backups is made internally. I'm not familiar with TWRP but CWM should have an option for internal or external. I use System Tuner Pro and it has a feature where it gives you a breakdown of all your heavy apps in memory. So far for me on my Note 3, it has been clockworkmod taking up 3.93GB and N.O.V.A. 3 coming in second at 2.4GB. I don't have many apps but I do have games that takes up alot of space such as Real Racing 3 (2.01GB), NOVA 3 (2.46GB),Need For Speed Most Wanted (2.02GB)

jtambis6 said:
Titanium Backups is made internally. I'm not familiar with TWRP but CWM should have an option for internal or external. I use System Tuner Pro and it has a feature where it gives you a breakdown of all your heavy apps in memory. So far for me on my Note 3, it has been clockworkmod taking up 3.93GB and N.O.V.A. 3 coming in second at 2.4GB. I don't have many apps but I do have games that takes up alot of space such as Real Racing 3 (2.01GB), NOVA 3 (2.46GB),Need For Speed Most Wanted (2.02GB)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try system tuner pro but Its funny because I used an app called my drives and it says I 16gb of free space but that's contrary to what my device actually states and the fact that I can't add any more apps etc at this point. I have moved apps/data to the sd card as a temp fix until I can free up space another way. TWRP has that same option to backup to internal and external and I chose external so I'm lost as to what's taking up that space. Under miscellaneous files it says system memory 29 gb used and lists viber 16mb and others in decrease sizes.

cnotes2019 said:
I will try system tuner pro but Its funny because I used an app called my drives and it says I 16gb of free space but that's contrary to what my device actually states and the fact that I can't add any more apps etc at this point. I have moved apps/data to the sd card as a temp fix until I can free up space another way. TWRP has that same option to backup to internal and external and I chose external so I'm lost as to what's taking up that space. Under miscellaneous files it says system memory 29 gb used and lists viber 16mb and others in decrease sizes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In CWM, there is an option to "free unused data". I chose this option once on a whim not knowing what it exactly does. After my phone rebooted, I checked my storage and I surprisingly gained a few GBs in space.

jtambis6 said:
In CWM, there is an option to "free unused data". I chose this option once on a whim not knowing what it exactly does. After my phone rebooted, I checked my storage and I surprisingly gained a few GBs in space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will see if TWRP has that option as that would be great !
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Just simply connect your phone to pc via cable. Now browse all folders inside phone storage, make sure you have selected to show hidden files. monitor the storage of each folder. This will help you in finding the culprit folder.

I have the same issue with my note 3 running the same rom. Let me know if you come up with a fix

the answer to your question
cnotes2019 said:
I have a rooted note 3 running beans and when I was dling a few apps it then said insufficient space. I checked and it says that miscellaneous files are taking up 29 gb of space. Anyone had this happen and/or no a fix? Thanks !
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
download DiskUsage from the play store to figure out what is taking up so much space. usually the problem is with the Android folder, delete the media under the android folder.
to be sure what folder is taking all the space go to your setting, then go to your storage then look at the miscelanous folder and and check how much gb/mb you need to get rid of.. check if the storage match the same size, then delete that folder.
in my case it was the media files under the android folder, i just deleted the whole folder and whala.

[Q] Internal memory leak?

So I've been looking around and trying to fix this problem myself but I've had no luck. I've almost completely run out of internal memory. I'm not sure if its a memory leak or what but its starting to affect my phone's ability to update apps. Currently, of the 16gb I have <800mb left but it used to be as low as ~50mb.
At first I tried just moving every app I could to my SD card, and I already transfer and delete every picture and video I have on my phone asap. So afterwards I wiped cache a few times. Finally I completely wiped and reset my phone to stock and still only freed up 1gb of space. I then flashed the negalite ROM. With this new rom and the core set of apps I use, all moved to the SD card, I have 829mb of internal memory free.
I understand that I really only have 8gb to play around with, but this screencap shows that I have 7gb being taken up by miscellaneous files, yet when I check what's in there it does not add up to 7gb (nothing below those files goes above a few hundred kb tops). Is there any way to free up more memory without deleting literally every app I have? I don't think I even have that many frivolous apps.
So to summarize, my phone is a sprint s4 SPH-L720 with 4.4.2 running the Negalite rom, with only 800mb/16gb internal free, trying to free up more. Not sure if its a memory leak or what.

Do you have any nandroid backups with either philz,cwm, or twrp recovery? If so those are about 3-5gbs each.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Using a file manager that can show hidden files (ES can) look around and see if you see any folder named something like lost.dir or lost+found it might be that some deleted items were sent or left their instead of going into oblivion. I have had it occur before, after deleting the contents it freed up several 100s of MB to GB of memory.
It's possible it could be this.

daniel4653 said:
Do you have any nandroid backups with either philz,cwm, or twrp recovery? If so those are about 3-5gbs each.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm I just went through the CWM folder and deleted some old backups supposedly but those were only like 9mb big... The mysteries keep mounting!
And catfood I tried looking through the files with file explorer but I couldn't find a lost or a variation of it.
Thanks for the replies though every little bit helps!

pinoysw1mmer said:
Hm I just went through the CWM folder and deleted some old backups supposedly but those were only like 9mb big... The mysteries keep mounting!
And catfood I tried looking through the files with file explorer but I couldn't find a lost or a variation of it.
Thanks for the replies though every little bit helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have any cloud apps like Google Drive or something of the like? Try checking sync options, or the programs settings, something might be downloading data to cache offline.

Backup your data!
Install philz_touch_6.19.6-jflte recovery
then go to Mount and Storage Menu
do a format for{ system, cache, date and(( /data and /data/media ( /sdcard)))

jam97 said:
Backup your data!
Install philz_touch_6.19.6-jflte recovery
then go to Mount and Storage Menu
do a format for{ system, cache, date and(( /data and /data/media ( /sdcard)))
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do I have to install that one or can I just use CWM?
And catfood I will check my cloud settings.

pinoysw1mmer said:
Do I have to install that one or can I just use CWM?
And catfood I will check my cloud settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know but I used that recovery and it works for me.

[Q] Halp! Deleted external SD card?

First of all... I wanted to start this post off by saying yes, I know I'm an idiot.
Now that that's out of the way....
A few weeks ago, I got so excited to flash a custom ROM, that somehow when I ran TWRP and backed up my system to the external SD card, I also wiped my external SD card. Because I'm an idiot. I don't know how or why it happened really. I just know it did.
I had previously saved EVERYTHING to my external SD card, thinking that was the safest place for the data... and now the past two years of my life documented in photographs are gone.
I have tweaked out on running custom phone software since the days of the original Razr and flashing Alltel firmware on it... and this is the first major screw up I've ever done.
Now... does TWRP back up that data somewhere, somehow? Or is it just system data/apps that get backed up? If TWRP didn't save it somewhere, is there possibly somewhere that the contents of my external SD card were MOVED upon installation of the custom ROM?

ircphoenix said:
A few weeks ago, I got so excited to flash a custom ROM, that somehow when I ran TWRP and backed up my system to the external SD card, I also wiped my external SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should never store your sole backup copy on the same device as is being backed up as you probably realize now.
Anyway, it's not clear from your post if you were storing a redundant copy of your backup on your external SD card or if you had configured TWRP to use your external SD card as the primary folder and therefore sole backup copy. The default location is usually /data/media/0/TWRP. Try a search for TWRP folders using a root aware file browser. With any luck you will find a backup on your internal SD card.
If not, then the only way to recover would be to try a data recovery program on your external SD card. Unless you do Google /cloud backups as well?
.

Recuva does most of the work well, and there is an option to restore the directory structure too if you poke around in the settings. Puran File Recovery works where Recuva did not in recovering some images and videos.
Both I have tried after an accidental format of the SD card from the phone settings.
They are both free desktop software.
Important to take not not to copy any files over to the affected card, or even your recovered files as well. Only do so when you are sure you have recovered all that you can onto a desktop folder.
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

fffft said:
Anyway, it's not clear from your post if you were storing a redundant copy of your backup on your external SD card or if you had configured TWRP to use your external SD card as the primary folder and therefore sole backup copy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The second scenario is what I believe I did. And I think when it created the backup, it wiped the external SD to suit it's needs. Problem being that the Nandroid backup wanted 6 gigs ish of space, and I had 4.5 or so remaining on the internal SD.... don't know what stuff I had on there... but *shrug*
Markuzy said:
Recuva does most of the work well, and there is an option to restore the directory structure too if you poke around in the settings. Puran File Recovery works where Recuva did not in recovering some images and videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the tip. I will try both of these. I think the nandroid backup wrote over the areas on the SD where the pictures were stored. You'd think it would pick the empty space before the occupied space... but I guess since it wiped it clean prior to backing up, it was ALL empty space. *sigh*
Thank you both very much for your help.